PIEDMONT – In its regular meeting Tuesday, the Piedmont City Council heard a presentation from Widenet representative Denise LaFollette, proposing upgrades to the City of Piedmont website. The website upgrades were approved.
The council also approved a retail beer and wine permit for the new Dollar General store located at 507 Memorial Drive.
Police chief Freddie Norton gave a report from his department for the month of December.
The police department had 43 arrests on 76 charges with 13 of those felony arrests. Seventy traffic citations were written and eight traffic accidents were worked. There were 296 calls for service, with 85 of those resulting in reports being filed. The dispatch office received 2,192 phone calls with 725 rescue calls dispatched, with 41 fire calls. Court collections were made in the amount of $15,864.00.
In the abatement report for last month, Norton said there were 22 total cases, including four new yard cases. Nine cases are being processed and six cases were completed. There was one contract on structure, two court cases and two verbal contracts.
For the year 2020, there were 109 total cases with 98 cases in compliance. Sixteen cases ended up in court and 14 yard cases were brought to compliance. One structure was removed by the city and nine others were removed by the city for the owner.
In animal control for December, there were five calls for service with two court cases. Nineteen animals were picked up with three taken to the shelter and 16 reclaimed by the owner.
For last year, there were 178 calls for service with 19 court cases. A total of 242 animals were picked up with 106 taken to the shelter and 136 reclaimed by the owner.
City Projects Manager Carl Hinton presented the council with the option of purchasing an access road behind the MAPCO service station that intersects highways 9 and 278. The road, owned by Farmers and Merchants Bank, is close to the new Burger King currently under construction.
The council is awaiting more information from Hinton before taking action.
Minutes from the previous council meeting were also approved, as were bills for payment totaling $739,085.34.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 2.